Samsung LN-46A750 LCD HDTV Aurora IL

Touch of Color is exactly what the design of this LCD has; a just barely noticeable tint of red along the edge of the bezel. I think it looks classy and stylish, though keep in mind I still have t-shirts I wore in high school. If there is a little light behind the TV, it really pops. On Samsung's website the color is really accentuated. In real life it is a lot more subtle, and that's why it works.

Samsung LN-46A750 LCD HDTV

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June 27, 2008 By Geoffrey Morrison

Touch of Red, Touch of Black

I have always questioned the dichromatic pallet of nearly all consumer electronics. When I voice this question, I am always told that consumers only want black or silver products. Personally, I don't get it. But I'm also certainly not one to ask about style. So when Samsung previewed their "Touch of Color" idea, seemed like a perfect compromise.

Touch of Color is exactly what the design of this LCD has; a just barely noticeable tint of red along the edge of the bezel. I think it looks classy and stylish, though keep in mind I still have t-shirts I wore in high school. If there is a little light behind the TV, it really pops. On Samsung's website the color is really accentuated. In real life it is a lot more subtle, and that's why it works.

Ok, so it looks good off, but that's hardly the reason to buy a TV. Upon power up (and power down), the LN-46A750 makes a little noise like other Samsung TVs. Unlike older Samsung models, though, this audible confirmation doesn't sound like a 1983 Casio. While I fail to see the need for the TV to make extraneous noises, at least now it sounds like a classy TV instead of a toy.

The remote has also gotten an upgrade. It has a swoopy, slick design that is fully backlit. The most useful addition is an iPod-esque scroll wheel that speeds up navigation, and in dialing in settings. It works so well, that other TV manufacturers should copy it.

The upgrades continue into the menus, which move much faster than previous generations. There are many, many settings to play around with. Out of the box the color points are pretty close to where they should be. Within the user menu, however, is an easy-to-use menu that lets you dial them in even closer. Easy, that is, as long as you have the right tools to measure the points. Color temperature is along the same lines, very close out of the box. If you're so inclined, you/your ISF calibrator can really dial this TV in.

A shiny screen?What is readily apparent, and worth discussing, is the screen itself. Unlike most LCD screens, this one is glossy—not unlike most plasma screens. So somewhat ironically, one of LCDs main legs up over plasmas (the lack of reflections), is not here. If there are windows behind where you're sitting, and you're at the right angle, you're going to see the windows (somewhat) in the screen. While this may seem, at first, to be a major flaw, for some people this is actually a good thing.

It's true that most LCDs don't have reflections. In many brightly lit rooms, this is great. What most LCDs also don't have is a decent black level. The light hitting the screen has to go somewhere (sorry, no magic). So it is diffused across the entire screen, raising the apparent black level. While you're watching in a brightly lit room, this probably isn't that noticeable.

What the LN-46A750's screen does instead is reflect some of that light back out. So if there is a lamp on behind ...